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Talk:All About : Kristoff/@comment-108.39.98.157-20171104214359
And if we wanted to look at Elsa, she's even more weakly developed as a character than Anna is. She's barely on screen, and when she is, she's acting in ways that don't even make sense. These are not moments of development. These are lapses in character. I've talked about them before so I won't restate them here, but one more thing to note about Elsa is that she, too, is never given the chance to confront her internal issues, only the external ones. The moment when she does not run and decides to face her antagonists is the moment when two henchmen are trying to kill her. They have nothing to do with her (lack of a) relationship with Anna. It's supposed to be an instance where the past (namely, angry villagers / devious trade partners) has caught up with her, but again, it's presented as a very external struggle, and the only moment where we get an instance of internal dilemma is when Hans calls out, "Don't be the monster they think you are!" Even this, however, is solved by a moment of convenience when the overhead chandelier comes crashing down, knocking Elsa unconscious. So even when Elsa is facing her problems head-on, she's stopped from actually resolving those problems. Elsa is then brought back to the castle, locked in a dungeon, and then... escapes. I don't blame her for wanting to run at that point (although we know of the more sinister things going on at this point, and she does not), but rather than working with dramatic irony, "Frozen" lets Elsa run away again, and the only time she stops running is when she's told that she has killed Anna. This is one of the few things that I think the movie does well: shows that Elsa could not solve her problems by running away from them. And yet, everything is ultimately fixed for her and not by her (with the exception of the snow still physically being on the ground). In the end, it's Anna's actions that set everything right, and although Elsa mourns Anna's fleeting, temporary death (which, incidentally, she was already doing before Anna fully turned into a Popsicle), everything snaps back into place without Elsa needing to lift a finger. And then Elsa suddenly understands everything perfectly, gathers up all the snow, and makes a giant snowflake in the sky before giving everyone the ability to ice skate. But not before Anna punches Hans in the face. Because that's all the emotional resolution we need for those two, apparently. Elsa is, quite frankly, too central to the narrative to work as a character. Personally, I wanted more of her. I wanted more development, more actions and reactions, more growth. But if we wanted to keep her as is? If she was more of a side character and less of a somewhat-central non-character, she may actually work. The movie wanted to focus on Anna anyway, so I'm not really sure why it showed Elsa as much as it did anyway. I was glad that Elsa was not a villain for the sake of being a villain (Hans, anyone?), but she is not really an antagonist, either. Her fear is motivated by love, but also ends up being the only thing that defines her. Fear is an incredibly strong motivator, but does not present a character arc unless the character in question struggles to overcome it. They can fail, certainly, which could make for an interesting narrative in and of itself, but Elsa's problem is that she never really tries to overcome it, just suppress it. There is a difference. A huge one. And Elsa's constant fleeing from her challenges could have been remedied by her actually caring that she shot Anna in the heart with frost. Rather than have her wander in circles in her ice palace muttering to herself while the castle grows teeth (which, I will say, was cool, seeing the environment reflect Elsa's fear) and then have her need to fight for her life, why not have her actually realize that running away from Anna solved nothing, and that she could not protect Anna by severing herself from her sister? Why not have her at least try to set things right? Why not let her actually regret throwing all responsibility away and have her work out for herself that her love for Anna can set things right? And why not let her fail by maybe not getting there in time, and have it so that it ends up being both sisters' love rather than just Anna's that leads to Anna's thawing? If you're thinking, "But it was!", then I say again, Elsa was already mourning for Anna prior to the great self-sacrifice, and Anna was already so loving towards Elsa that this great self-sacrifice really doesn't make sense. In no way are either Anna or Elsa strongly written characters. Not when they try to serve as main characters. Elsa especially is really only defined by two things: the fact that she is Anna's sister, and her fear of her own powers. Just because a character shows emotion does not mean that they are complex and multidimensional. We wouldn't consider a character who is only ever angry fully developed. Not without exploring that anger and giving that character the chance to overcome it, at least. We wouldn't consider a character who is only ever happy rich and complex. But we're ready to call Elsa "rich" and "complex" because she only experiences fear with a weird smack of "F*** it all!!!" thrown in the middle alongside unconditional love for Anna (which exists without any real sisterly bond and with the knowledge that the accident that incited this whole muddled plot was caused as much by Anna as it was by Elsa) and the constant need to protect Anna by running away from her (which is motivated by fear). Anna and Elsa both have a lot of potential as far as characters go, but they fall flat. That is a fault that rests entirely with the writers / whoever had the final say on this script. Let's be clear on that.